The odd couple

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George Moore, the smooth-talking former FM music announcer with
baby-face good looks, has been married for 30 years, lives in the
northern suburbs and is partial to bushwalking, scuba diving and
other healthy outdoor pursuits. Kidd, a former newspaper journo,
fishing expert and true-crime writer with a crumpled look, has been
married five times (with his eye on number six), lives in a Bondi
apartment and likes a bet. "Football, the Oscars, the election
results - I'll bet on anything but the horses," he says.

Their radio partnership happened by accident. Four years ago 2UE
management wanted to start a panel show on weekends during summer
and asked Moore if he'd fill in as host while the person they
wanted was overseas. Moore had recently lost his position on the
Mix 106.5 FM breakfast show and was interested in switching to talk
radio. Kidd, the station's regular fishing and boating commentator,
was lined up as his guest. The show worked so well that 2UE never
got around to developing the panel idea. After a while, Moore asked
Kidd if he'd like to make it a two-man show "rather than a bloke
who has a show and a guest who doesn't go home".

Around the same time, Ray Hadley and the Continuous Call Team
switched to 2GB, leaving 2UE without a weekend football program in
winter for the first time in years. Attempts to mount a rival
sports show failed, and after a bit of head-scratching, 2UE decided
to extend Moore and Kidd's program to run throughout the year on
weekends from 1-6pm.

"It was a bit of a fallback position," Kidd says. "The thinking
was that we couldn't compete with 2GB in winter so the best we
could do was provide an interesting and entertaining alternative
for those people who didn't want to hear the football call."

It came as a surprise then - not least to Moore and Kidd - that
in the latest survey their Sunday show was No. 1 in its timeslot,
not only beating Hadley and his team on 2GB but every music station
as well. "One swallow doesn't make a spring," Moore says, "but it
indicates that slowly and surely we're starting to get the
recognition that there is something else worth listening to on the
weekends."

Five-hour shifts are demanding, but Moore and Kidd keep up the
pace by covering a variety of themes, from nostalgia and local
history to crime, nature and forgotten scandals, with plenty of
input from regular guests and callers. "I think what makes the show
work is that we are so different," Moore says, "and there's a good
sense of camaraderie and trust between us."

"George is the most professional person I've ever worked with,"
Kidd says. "We've become very good friends - I even dedicated my
last book to him."